Financial
Grants and Fellowships While many CRDM students depend solely on funding provided through CRDM, some students gain funding from other sources. The IGERT Fellowship The IGERT program is an interdisciplinary program that studies the intersections of genetics, technology, and culture. The IGERT funding comes from the National Science Foundation and requires a seperate application from NCSU and CRDM. IGERT can provide funding for at least two years. More details can be found at their website. The Fulbright Program The Fulbright Program provides some of our international students with funding. The Fulbright program also offers grants for dissertation research. There are several different schemes of Fulbright Program. The two schemes below perhaps are the most relevant for CRDM students. 1. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program This Fulbright program provides funding for student with U.S. citizenship and currently undertaking academic program in one of U.S. institutions. The grants are available for conducting academic research and arts projects in nearly 140 countries. Applicants design their research projects in consultation with their advisers in their home institution in the U.S as well as with advisers in the overseas host institution. 2. The Fulbright Foreign Student Program This Fulbright program provides opportunity for foreign students (non-U.S. citizen) to study and conduct research in the United States. This program operates in more than 155 countries worldwide. Applicants of this grant have to start their application process in their home country. Eligibility and selection procedures vary by country. The Social Science Research Council The Social Science Research Council offers various forms of funding for PhD students who conduct social science research in international contexts. While they place an emphasis on quantitative and enthographic practices, they also provide funding for other methodologies including archival work. The National Science Foundation While primarily focused on graduate students in the sciences, the NSF offers a variety of funding opportunities for graduate level research. This funding might be useful for students who are interested in projects related to science, technology, and society. Helpful Contact: Dr. Tiffany Kershner, Assistant Director of the NCSU Honors Fellowship program. While Dr. Kershner works primarily with undergraduates, she is a good source of information about potential funding opportunities for graduate students. Travel Reimbursement Students on the Graduate Student Support Plan (GSSP) are considered "employees" of the University. So, if you are going to a conference, you have the right to have part of your travel expenses reimbursed by the CRDM program. In this section, you will find all the necessary steps to apply for the reimbursement. First step: As you are an employee of the North Carolina State university (TA or RA), first you have to obtain an authorization for leaving your work and travel: Travel Authorization Request. You must submit it at least one month before your travel. In order to submit the Travel Authorization Request, go to your MyPackPortal 1 and sign in with your Unit ID and password. 2 On the major horizontal menu bar, click on the For Faculty & Staff option. Then, go to the Employee Self Service and chose the option Travel Authorization. You must create a new Travel Request, fill it up with information about the purpose of your trip and list of expenses. After you have filled up your Travel Authorization, you should submit it for approval. Second step: After returning to North Carolina State University, all students must file a Travel Reimbursement Request form, listing expenses as required on the form. Use the CHASS Travel Envelope checklist to not only check your documentation, but also to include with your Travel Reimbursement Request form. All afore mentioned documents can be found at the CHASS Forms link 3. Throughly check your reimbursement form and compile all required receipts and documents as outlined in the CRDM Travel Guidelines Checklist 4. If you submit an incomplete form, neglect to include documentation, and don't follow our detailed guidelines, your reimbursement will be delayed or no reimbursement at all for certain items. If you are NOT employed by the University, you must complete the AP-104 form prior to traveling 5. This form may be submitted either as a hard copy or via email, signed /dated by the student, to the Graduate Services Coordinator. It will then be routed to the Director of Graduate Programs (Dr. Jason Swarts) for approval. In the section Resources on the CRDM page 6, you will find further information about Travel Guidelines and Documents. CRDMSA Travel Reimbursement In addition to travel funding through CRDM, students are eligible to receive travel funding from the CRDM Student Association (CRDMSA) through our affiliation with NC State's Student Government. Typically, these requests are for conferences that CRDM students travel to the most: NCA and CCCC. In the past, CRDMSA has been able to reimburse registration costs for each conference. At the beginning of each semester, the CRDMSA treasurer will send out an email soliciting requests for travel reimbursements for NCA or CCCC. To receive funding, you must respond with a line-itemized estimate of your travel costs. These estimates are invaluable in helping the Treasurer draft a budget that will be used to argue for funding from Student Government. Once funding totals have been received from Student Government, the Treasurer will confirm the amount that CRDMSA will be able to reimburse. Funding is not guaranteed and fluctuates from year to year. Once you have returned from the conference, please send the following to the Treasurer: CRDMSA dues payment ($10/semester) and travel receipts. The Treasurer will then issue you a check for the stated amount. Please remember that you cannot receive reimbursement for the same item from both CRDM and CRDMSA. For example, if you've already received (or requested) reimbursement for registration through CRDM, you cannot also receive reimbursement from CRDMSA. Supplemental and Emergency Financing NCSU Job Board Students who are looking for additional temporary or part-time work should check the NCSU Job Board 1. It is updated frequently and contains job postings from every department on campus. Grading It may be possible for you to work as a grader for a distance education course. Check with your department head for potential openings. Tutoring There are opportunities for employment with Writing and Speaking Tutorial Services 2. The WSTS is NC State’s writing center. They hire consultants to work one-on-one with undergraduate and graduate students. The Academic Support Program for Student Athletes 3 regularly hires tutors to help student athletes with their coursework. Summer work is also available. Working as an Adjunct Instructor Students who are unable to teach courses through NCSU may be interested in teaching or tutoring at other colleges in the area. The following colleges regularly hire adjunct instructors for communication, humanities, and English courses: William Peace University 4, Durham Technical Community College 5, Wake Technical Community College 6, Johnston Community College 7, Vance-Granville Community College 8. Other NC community college job postings are available here 9. Many community colleges in the area offer evening, weekend, and summer classes. Short-Term Emergency Loans Loans of up to $400 to meet emergency expenses may be obtained on short notice at the Financial Aid Office, 2005 Harris Hall 10. These loans are designed for short term emergency use and should be repaid within about 30 days. RA Assignments Summary of section Please see the section four of the Graduate School handbook for details about assistantships: http://www.ncsu.edu/grad/handbook/sections/index.php. Definition: The Graduate School Handbook gives two descriptions of a graduate teaching assistant’s tasks: directly participates in the teaching mission of the unit as instructor of record, lab instructor, recitation leader, lab or lecture assistant, or who has responsibilities in direct support of classroom instruction in the unit, such as setting up labs or working in an instructional computer lab; or provides general support to the teaching mission of the department or program. Eligibility: You must be in good academic standing (3.000 grade point average or higher), unless you have approval from the the Graduate School. Time Commitment: Research assistantships are usually 20 hours per week if you have a full-time assistantship appointment. You can also work less than 20 per week. Additionally, research assistantships may be for an entire year, semester, summer session, or shorter durations. The duration of the research assistantship decides on the work and funding available. For example, some research assistantships may be funded for $300 as opposed to for an entire year. Benefits: '''Research assistantships are typically the same pay as your teaching assistantship. Some assistantships may vary in pay according to the terms of your agreement and amount of funding available. Research assistantships allows you to gain research experience, such as publishing work, while maintaining focus on your goals to complete your degree and advance in your disciplinary area. '''Finding a Research Assistantship: '''There are three ways to find a research assistantship: 1) Approach faculty you interested in working with and inquire about whether they may be interested in having you as a research assistant or if they are aware of any opportunities; 2) Discuss your research assistant aims with your Program Advisor or Faculty Advisor to determine if they may be able assist you with finding an opportunity; or 3) Check the NC State jobs database by searching for “research assistant” or doing a general search through the jobs available. '''Peer Advice: First of all, begin your search early. Second of all, check your sources often. Finally, make sure the you and professor or principal investigator are clear on any expectations. TA Assignments TA Assignments vary year to year. For teaching in Fall and Spring here are some things to note: * You will be assigned through whatever department you are going to teach for (i.e. Communication or English) * Joan Alford will send you a contract at the start of each school year. * To stay on the GSSP you must register for courses on time and for the proper amount of credit hours each semester! * GSSP link: http://www.ncsu.edu/grad/support-plan/ * You can access your past paychecks, scheduled paychecks, and tax forms all from MyPack Portal. You do this by going to the "faculty/staff" section of your MyPack. * If you have questions about your paycheck that can't be found in your contract or in MyPack Portal, Joan can usually direct you to the proper person. If you're teaching in the summer there are only a few things that change: * This is not GSSP so registration doesn't matter * Both the amount and timing of your paychecks will depend upon the department you're teaching for. For example, in the Communication department, rather than getting paid every two weeks as you would during the school year, you generally get paid once or twice during the summer session in which you're teaching. * Questions about payment should be directed to the department in which you're teaching. Summer Employment There are several options available to CRDM students interested in summer employment. There is no one place for finding summer jobs so students will need to be proactive in locating the opportunities available. Some examples of summer employment opportunities available to students are teaching summer course on campus, teaching online classes, grading for online classes, and TA/RA positions. There are two summer sessions and the class schedule and dates can be found here: http://www.ncsu.edu/registrar/scheduling/summertimeschedule.html. CRDM students are not limited to the English and Comm departments. For example, previous CRDM students have secured positions in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, the College of Education, and the Professional Writing program. In addition to the opportunities at NC State, CRDM students have successfully found work at the other colleges and universities in the area. The best way to begin your quest for summer employment is by asking around, many of the opportunities will not be advertised. Your program director, academic advisor, course professors, and other students in the program are excellent resources. As a CRDM student, you can also expect to receive emails from both the English and Communication departs towards the end of the Fall semester asking about who is interested in teaching over the summer. A previous email concerning teaching positions in the Communication departments explains: “Typical summer opportunities are required courses and DE versions of required courses. In the past, students have taught COM 110, COM 112, COM 211, COM 201, COM 202, COM 257 (DE), COM 327 (DE), COM 267, COM 307, COM 357, and COM 367. There may be an opportunity for teaching COM 250 this summer, if you are qualified for that. COM 226 (PR) and COM 456 (Org Com) have also been taught if you have an interested and are qualified in those areas. Also, it is the most likely that you will have an opportunity to teach one section of a course this summer (both summer sessions are not likely and more than one section/course is also not likely).” Students affiliated with the English department may request to teach any course they are qualified for, but “in general, opportunities to teach upper-level and graduate courses are small.” Students wishing to teach “a graduate course or an upper-level undergraduate course, will first need to consult with their disciplinary group chair in order to get approval for your course(s).” The opportunities available for summer employment within the university change each year. The key to securing a summer job is to start looking early, there are a limited number of positions available and they fill up quickly. Part-Time Student Portal Part-time CRDM students are faced with special challenges and opportunities. Appropriately, these hinge on space and time. Peer Interaction & Support Perhaps the most important thing a part-time student can do is spend as much time as possible with other CRDM students. By definition this is contradictory, as part-time students have other full-time commitments requiring them to be part-time. However, your CRDM experience as a PhD students will be shaped by your peers as much as by faculty. As students we constantly hear we need to know what other students are working on so we can find mutual areas of research engagement and collaboration. This will not happen naturally for part-time students who are neither engaged in other campus social life nor sharing CRDM common social spaces. It must be structured into your day. Plan time before and after classes to chat with peers and get to know what they are up to. CRDM students are a friendly bunch and fifteen minutes here and there can work wonders. CRDM Classes CRDM 809 Colloquium may at first seem less useful for part-time students not intending a career in academia. However, it has other useful purposes. For those thinking about changing careers, it is a good eye-opener into what an academic career might be like and can help your decision-making process. If you can arrive early and stay late for class, it also provides the fifteen minutes noted above to interact with students across all cohorts. This is an important point, one of the advantages part-time students have is they will have exposure to more cohorts of CRDM students than full-time students. This time advantage can be developed by attending CRDM 809. CRDM 700 series classes are scheduled in the evening after the regular work day is finished. This is very convenient for part-time students. Assuming you choose to work through the 700 series first, this will allow you to spend much of the first year or two (depending on your course load) attending classes after work. You'll need to bring dinner with you though. Summer Coursework is possible. As a part-time student, you likely are living a lifestyle tied to the academic calendar. Nor do you likely have the luxury of taking summers off. Many graduate level elective courses for the degree, as well as independent research courses, are available during the summer months. Some are even pre-recorded online, eliminating the need to travel to campus and freeing you up to attend "class" on your own schedule. Office Space Part-time students are entitled to office space in the CRDM graduate student Annex area. But don't get to excited. You are lowest on the assignment totem pole and there is not enough to go around. However, assuming you've invested in getting to know your peers (see above), CRDMer's are happy to let you hot desk when they are not around. If you intend to conduct business while in the Annex for your "real" job, the conference room in the Annex is useful for making phone calls without disturbing people. You will need to bring your own phone and laptop though. These are temporary solutions at best though, so don't expect to use the Annex space regularly. The Hill Library has several study rooms dedicated to graduate student use. The Centennial Campus Library has numerous individual study spaces. During holiday break periods the Hill Library spaces especially are usually empty and can serve as work locations. Parking You will want to calculate the value of purchasing a parking permit versus paying for parking when you come to campus. Parking is free after 5PM on weekdays on the street in front of the buildings where CRDM 700 level classes and 809 are held, as is the dormitory lot. Daytime parking is usually available on the street for a dollar and hour in the same location. If you only intend to come into campus for a few hours during the day on one or two days a week and leave again, metered parking may be your best bet. For the few days a semester where you come to campus for more than the 2 hour limit, it is worthwhile to pay for campus garage parking. The Coliseum Parking Deck is a short walk from the Annex and communications class buildings. CRDM Office Hours CRDM main office hours are not set up to accommodate full-time working students. The office is closed and locked at 5PM and you will be asked to leave. Any administrative collaboration you need to arrange with the office is best done by telephone, email and mail, unless you are on campus during the work day with any regularity. Individual faculty are very accommodating once they understanding your scheduling restrictions as a full-time worker/part-time student. Let them know your scheduling constraints for meetings and discussions as a part-timer student up front and they will work with you. Conference Funding Part-time CRDM students are entitled to the same conference funding support as regular students. Assuming you can find the time to attend a conference (and have an interest), this can be quite helpful. Individual annual budgets range from $500 to $750, so don't plan on attending conferences as you might in your capacity as an employee. Library Resources The NCSU library system is a leader is digitization. For the part-time student not on campus frequently, this is a tremendous asset. It means you can conduct much of your research without leaving home on your own time. Explore the library online resources early in your first semester. You will be glad you did. Homework & Course Load This is perhaps one of the areas where the experience and resources of part-time students, especially non-traditional ones, will differ from full-time students. Unlike your peers, you likely can't stay up all night reading every week or finish off papers by writing all weekend. You may work 60+ hours a week. You may have a wife and children who deserve your time and attention. You may have both! Slow and steady wins this race for part-time students. Find a dedicated time when you can focus on coursework and papers every day, and when that time is up, set it aside without regret. Make sure everyone knows this is your focus time so they can support you. In return, promise there will be no schoolwork during family or work time. While everyone will find a system that works best for them, there is only so much time to go around. As a part-timer, prioritization and tight scheduling will be keys to success. NCSU Email & Wolfware There is a lot of email, and your peers and faculty think you spend all day reading it. If you have a job, you likely don't. Wolfware postings for courses are an important aspect of NCSU graduate student success. Again, your peers and faculty will expect you are reading it as it pours in. Expect electronic communication to come at the last minute and plan your communication strategy accordingly. You likely can't afford to be checking your NCSU email and postings all day every day, but there will be last-minute information you need to see. As with coursework and writing, plan a time to check up on things, and then leave it at that.